Should I use WhatsApp?

Privacy and Security Get Advice
1

I recently deleted almost every social media or way to contact me except Signal or SMS. Most people are now only texting me via SMS which isn’t very secure or private. I’m wondering if WhatsApp would be at least a bit more private and secure compared to SMS and if it outweighs the obvious privacy risks since it’s a Meta product. I live in Europe so almost everyone uses WhatsApp.

2

short answer:no
long answer: fuck no

3

First, see if they want/can switch to Signal, if not, see if they can use Google Messages which is installed by default on all Android phones, and if yes, GM will use RCS which has E2EE which is better than SMS, if they really don’t want GM, then your only option is WhatsApp which is better than SMS mainly for E2EE and many other advantages.

4

We all know Meta is a shitty company, if you didn’t have an answer why post? Is SMS better than using WhatsApp for both privacy and security?

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5

Sadly only 2 people I know managed to switch to Signal, I’m 16 so a lot of people my age don’t really care about privacy and a lot of the times they don’t have storage for another app. I do use RCS but 50% of my friends use an iPhone.

7

fine, both are bad SMS and Whatsapp for privacy and security i recommend you use signal as much as possible and when not isolate whatsapp in a work profile or a seperate user if you’re on android

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8

These are not the fault of your friends but the fault of Apple who, for some reasons, doesn’t want to go with RCS

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9

Looks like I’ll use WhatsApp in a workprofile. Sharing some data to Meta but at least having encryption seems to be better than having no encryption and sharing everything to my provider. I have mentioned on WhatsApp I’ll respond faster on Signal so I hope some people will still switch. Thank you

10

It’s pretty obvious why Apple doesn’t want RCS, they need to lock their users into the ecosystem. I hope someday the EU will make some sort of law that requires them to adopt something like RCS.

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11

I think they are already doing it. I may be wrong though. It’s regulation not obligation but it’s better than nothing.

  • Allow developers to integrate their apps and digital services directly with those belonging to a gatekeeper. This includes making messaging, voice-calling, and video-calling services interoperable with third-party services upon request.
1 Like
12

SMS and Signal is all I use as well. I have never used WhatsApp and I do not know if any of my friends who do.
You mention 50% of your friends use iPhone and the cross platform use of Signal and Signal’s features may be a way to get more friends to use Signal. This does not really work for myself but I have friends that Video Chat predominately.

I ask here not for myself, but to answer this common question. Is there a more secure way to use WhatsApp, than using a work profile.
What could you do with no expense and usability not being an issue?

Isolated hardware, private network only used for WhatsApp, software solutions…

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13

Most iPhone users I know already have WhatsApp since it’s pretty much the standard here in Europe. So making them switch is really hard but I have convinced a few.

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14

I still have whatsapp, I use it with shelter and freezes after checking updates. it works fine plus it is mostly frozen except 2-5 mins per day. I dont communicate over whatsapp with anyone, I just receive updates and notifications over whatsapp. I just kept it for some groups related university. I obviously can’t ask professors to join signal :sweat_smile: